Bob Dylan’s expansive and eclectic musical career has always been influenced by the sounds and styles he encountered along the way, but few stories are as intriguing as the one behind his lyric inspired by an exotic drum owned by a friend.
The story goes that Dylan’s lyric for “She Belongs to Me,” a track off his 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home, was partly inspired by a peculiar instrument—an exotic drum gifted to a close buddy of Dylan’s.
This drum, with its otherworldly rhythms and mysterious origins, reportedly sparked Dylan’s imagination, leading him to craft lyrics that reflected both a sense of intrigue and mysticism.The drum wasn’t just any instrument; it was a rare piece that produced a sound unlike anything Dylan had heard before. The uniqueness of the beats it produced seemed to open up a new world of creativity for him. His friend would play the drum during their jam sessions, and Dylan, always the lyrical alchemist, allowed its strange yet captivating rhythm to seep into his songwriting. The result was a lyric that captured the enigmatic quality of the drum’s sound—a mix of ethereal beauty and grounded reality, much like the woman described in “She Belongs to Me.”
The song’s playful yet haunting tone was a reflection of Dylan’s knack for turning unexpected inspiration into art.While the full extent of the drum’s influence remains a footnote in music history, it’s clear that Dylan drew from a variety of sources to shape his work.
The story serves as a reminder of how even the smallest, most random experiences can inspire creativity in unexpected ways. Dylan’s ability to take something as simple as an exotic drum and weave it into his poetic lyrics speaks to his genius as a songwriter, forever curious about the world around him and always open to inspiration from the most unconventional places.
